Chapter 5: Through the Eye of the Needle
Captain's log: Stardate 57416.6, At the moment we are patrolling the neutral zone, there is one thing of note though, we have found a debris field and are sending down shuttles. Zim and I are going down today in about half an hour. '' “Is the shuttle ready?” Hernandez asked. “Should be, just re-aligning the warp coils... There, we're all good to go.”The tall blonde engineer slid out from under the the shuttle and stood up, “Come on then!” she said excitedly. As the two pilots settled in, Hernandez tapped his combadge. “Hernandez to Control. Permission to take off.” “Permission granted Captain. Happy searching!” “Will do. Hernandez out.” “Anti-grav thrusters online, opening main shuttlebay doors.” The shuttle slowly rose up from the deck and headed for the forcefield keeping the shuttlebay habitable. As the shuttle broke the forcefield, Zim declared, “Swithcing to Impulse engines.” The shuttle sped up a lot as it entered the field. “What's the debris from?” Hernandez asked. “I think that it's from a Romulan ship.” she replied. All of a sudden the craft went to warp. “Warp 7...Warp 8... Warp 9...point 1... point 5... point 9! These shuttles are only designed for warp 7!” Zim explained. They dropped out of warp in a nebula. “Any idea where we are?” “No. No known landmarks. We're Lost!” “Commander! I am detecting a singularity from the debris!” Jacobi cautioned. “Send a probe.” T'Zan replied. “Hernandez and Zim! They're gone!” “Could it be possible that the Romulan Warp core could still be active?” “It is possible that the Ion particles from the impulse drive could have enlarged the singularity.” Chimed in deputy chief engineer Dorian Collins, the only surviving member of Red Squad from the Valiant disaster. “Gather all the Senior staff in the Ward room in 5 minutes.” “Aye sir.” “I see a probe.” Hernandez said “It's trying to find the Interstellar” Zim replied. “Commander, how long do you think it'll take till it finds the ship?” “Depends on how far we are away. James, drop the ranks, there's no point with all this formality.” “All right then Zim.” “What are our options?” T'Zan asked the assembled senior staff. “There could have been radiation inside.” CMO Miranda Jacobi worried. She and Zim were very close friends. “There shouldn't have been too much. The deflector shields are designed to prevent radation from getting through.” Lt. Collins interjected. “Zim is a trained medic,” Dr. Jacobi realised. “The probe isn't in the immediate vicinity or we'd have found it by now, which means that they're over 20 lightyears away.”Arran Jacobi said. “I could trace the singularity's path using the Romulan control panel we found.” Collins suggested, “It may be our only hope.” she said grimly. “I shall undertake the mission” T'Zan declared. “But Comman-” “It is my duty as acting Commanding officer of this vessel to protect the lives of my crew, and my senior officials. Miss Collins, you will need to educate me in the art of tracing a singularity.” “Bloody Vulcan's!” she muttered under her breath. “Zim, I gotta tell you this, I've always appreciated as a talented beautiful woman. Zim, if we're going to spend the re-” “James, I love you too.” she whispered. As the two embrace each other an alarm starts to go off on the console. Hernandez presses a button and it falls silent. T'Zan has boarded a shuttle and is reaching the singularity and puts on an Environmental suit and picks up an engineering kit. Presses a few buttons on the airlock, and steps onto the warp core housing. The rest of the senior staff are gathered round the situation table in main engineering, waiting for the communique from T'Zan to say he's reached the housing. Suddenly a call comes through from the unfortunate Vulcan, ''“T'Zan to Interstellar.” '' “Interstellar here.” ''“I am beginning to access the engineering logs.” '' “Understood.” ''“Apparently the ship was attacked by a Klingon D7 cruiser.” “The D7's were phased out 50 years ago!” Collins exclaimed. “Ah. I have reached the status panel. Beginning the diagnostic.” “Understood.” A few minutes later the Vulcan rung back “It goes to,” there was a brief pause as T'Zan couldn't believe his eyes, “The Romulan system!” The Senior staff were horrified. By now the Captain and Zim should be dead... Links USS Interstellar, Zim Dodge, James Hernandez, Miranda Jacobi, Arran Jacobi, Dorian Collins, T'Zan Category:Stories Category:Volume 1